Board of Management 2018

Tabetha Beggs, Chair

Tabetha Beggs is the CEO of the Kalamunda Chamber of Commerce. She is also a former Chairwoman of the Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation and maintains a strong and active relationship with KSP. As an active member of the Perth arts community Tabetha was founder and Director of both Little Black Dress Productions, a vocal performance group, and Perth Culture, a website covering local arts news and events. She has been a Board Member of writingWA since 2016.

Guy Boyce, Deputy Chair

Guy is a professional arts manager who is currently Artistic Director/CEO of Mandurah Performing Arts Centre (since June 2010) and Chair of CircuitWest, the performing arts presenter association of WA (since October 2011). Under his leadership MANPAC has expanded its program and profile in WA through applying its vision to become a leading‘centre for the arts’ in Australia. This vision has enabled MANPAC to develop literary events as a core part of its offering through key partnerships with Mandurah Libraries and writingWA. In 2015 this saw MANPAC present the pilot Writers on the Road program with the Pyjama Party and A Glass of Wine and a Good Book. In 2017 MANPAC presented the first Sydney Writers Festival Live and Local program in WA with writingWA support. Through his leadership of CircuitWest the presentation of literary events is becoming a core part of the offering of the performing arts presenter circuit. In his previous role as Director of the Christchurch Arts Festival (2000 – 2009) in New Zealand, Guy managed two Christchurch International Writers Festivals in 2006 and 2008, timed between the Brisbane and Melbourne Writers Festivals to enable sharing of program elements.

Renato Sansalone, Treasurer

Renato is a Curtin University Commerce graduate and CPA. His current role is as Chief Financial Officer for Tourism WA and he previously held postings as Chief Finance Officer for the WA Museum and Art Gallery of WA while employed with the Department of Culture and the Arts. Renato has almost 20 years' experience in the Government financial sector and has also worked at the Department for Planning and Infrastructure and the Department of Racing, Gaming and Liquor. He has been a member of the writingWA Board since 2002.

Catherine Noske, Secretary

Catherine Noske completed her PhD in Creative Writing at Monash University (2013), and has since taught at Monash, Curtin University and the University of Western Australia. She has been a visiting research scholar at the University of Warwick (UK), and postgraduate representative to the Association for the Study of Australian Literature. She has twice received the Elyne Mitchell Prize for Rural Women Writers. She was awarded a Varuna fellowship (2014) for her manuscript 'The Call of Salt', which was shortlisted for the 2015 Dorothy Hewett Prize. Catherine took up the position of editor of Westerly Magazine in 2015.

Natasha Lester

Natasha Lester worked as a marketing executive for L’Oreal, managing the Maybelline brand, before returning to university to study creative writing. She completed a Master of Creative Arts at Curtin University as well as her first novel, What is Left Over, After, which won the TAG Hungerford Award for fiction. Her second novel, If I Should Lose You was published in 2012 and her first historical novel, the bestselling A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, was published in 2016. This was followed by Her Mother’s Secret in 2017 and The Paris Seamstress in 2018. She is also published in the US and Europe. The Age newspaper has described her as “a remarkable Australian talent.”

Susan Midalia

Susan Midalia has a PhD in contemporary Australian women’s fiction and has published on the subject in national and international literary journals. She is the author of a novel, The Art of Persuasion, published by Freamntle Press in 2018, and three short story collections, all published by UWA Publishing: A history of the beanbag, shortlisted for the 2008 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards; An Unknown Sky, shortlisted for the 2013 Steele Rudd Award, and Feet to the Stars. Susan is also a freelance editor and mentor, and has been a judge of the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards, the T.A.G. Hungerford Award, the Curtin Fiction Prize and the Todhunter Literary Award. She is also a peer assessor for Australia Council. She has been a fiction editor for Westerly, and currently writes reviews for the Australian Book Review.

Tineke van der Eecken

Tineke Van der Eecken was born and raised in Belgium. She studied 9 languages and holds a Masters Degree in Criminological Sciences and Mediator accreditation with over 15 years experience in governance of not-for-profit organisations in Africa, Europe and Australia. She is a writer, mediator and recognized community leader, a co-coordinator of Poetry d’Amour and writes poetry, short-stories and memoirs. She was Executive Officer of the Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia briefly in 2005 and worked as Chief Executive Officer for the Lung Institute of Western Australia from 2009 until mid 2011. She is an alumnus of Leadership WA after completing their ‘Rising Leadership’ program in 2015.

Rhonda Flottmann

Rhonda Flottmann established and managed the National Museum of Australia’s Sponsorship and Development Program (ACT), established and was the inaugural Director of His Majesty’s Theatre Foundation (WA), established and was the inaugural Director of Varuna Writers’ Centre in the Blue Mountains, the former home of writer Eleanor Dark (NSW). Most recently she was Director, External Affairs, UWA Business School.